The City of London Police Federation warns against cuts to force under new austerity agenda

14 November 2022

The City of London Police Federation has warned against cuts to the force under a new austerity agenda. 

Mike Reed, Federation Chair, said reducing funding would undo all the hard work that has recently been done under the Uplift programme. 

Speaking ahead of the Autumn budget, Mike said: “Levels of officer head count are at a recent all-time high for the City Police. This is due to the national uplift program funded by the Government and is a much-needed boost to both officer safety and delivery of service to a truly unique policing environment.

“As a force we have seen our numbers dwindle year on year through both the removal of Core funding from the Government and equally from the amount of savings that are demanded each year by the Corporation of London. This has a knock-on effect to levels of service and the daily work of our members. 

“We have seen response times with the lowest staff levels known in the City for many years, CID tables depleted and annual events requiring the mobilisation of all force resources to cope with them previously. With the savings that have been put on for the City Police to find a vacancy factor that impacts on the delivery of service levels and the need for extra days to be worked by members just because there are enough of them has seen numerous rest days cancelled and leave embargos in place. So the uplift is very important.”

Mike called for commitment from the Government to recognise the need to maintain budgets, as ‘the world gets tougher and the job gets harder’. 

He also called on the Corporation of London to fund the force properly, and for policing leaders to abandon the word ‘austerity’ - warning that they should be careful of ‘papering over the cracks’. 

Mike added: “The economy may be broken, community values shattered but without a police service there to hold the fabric of society together while all else fails, where do we come back to after austerity ends. Policing underpins it all. It's got to be funded right.”